Monday, June 25, 2012

Yogic cries

Women often talk about a “good cry” and how much
better they feel after having one. Having a good cry enables them to feel their
emotions—and somehow that’s very liberating. I actually haven’t had that
experience. My cries are usually bad, and I feel swollen and sore and stupid
after I’ve had one.

For me, yoga provides what a good cry offers
other women. And here’s my explanation of how it works. There’s a theory in
psychology called cognitive dissonance, and basically it says that the
discomfort of acting in a way that conflicts with your attitudes will drive you
to bring your actions and attitudes into alignment. And often enough, you will
change your attitudes to bring it into accord with your actions.

In yoga, many asanas have an engrained emotional
or attitudinal component. Forward bends foster introversion. Backbends foster
courage. Half-moon is ecstatic. And so forth.

Even if you think of yourself as kind of
cowardly, say, you experience courage as you do a half-wheel, because you can’t
really do a half-wheel and feel cowardly at the same time.

So when you participate in a well-designed,
thorough yoga practice, you cycle through a rich gamut of emotion-laden activity.
And you actually feel the emotions because you can’t carry out the activity
without feeling them.

It’s not precisely the same thing as a good cry.
It’s better. Your nose doesn’t run, you don’t make revolting noises, and you
don’t feel like you have to apologize to everyone afterward.